sad shroom...

I've had my shroom frags (frilly brown and green bullseye) for about 3 weeks now. All had been going well (how many posts start this way?), my frilly brown shroom had even split in half, but yesterday I came home from work to find that both my shrooms were considerably retracted. The frillies look better today, but the bullseye was still retracted. So I moved him back into the shadow of my LR a bit (less and light and flow suggested a post or 12 scattered across the net). The shroom then proceeded to get pissed.



What I'm calling its guts came out of the center (white thread stuff in the crappy picture above). Any idea what's going on, what caused it or what I can do to make it all better?
Help!

 

I can't see them in the picture but they are called mesenterial filaments (or acontia). They will often come out if your corallimorph is placed too close to another coral and they are fighting. (I.e. not chemical warfare....actual warfare with stinging nematocysts). Extreme stress can occasionally cause this as well.

If your coral is near another coral that has sweeper tentacles, move the rock. Otherwise, leave it alone. They often retract their "weapon" after a couple of days and will go back to normal.

BTW....elephant ears (the mushroom that eats fish), uses these to digest the fish.

 

When I have touched mine before (especially hairy and frilly shrooms) they have spilled their guts, but they always go back to normal later. Maybe just have some patience, check your water quality and if it is OK let the shrooms have some time and leave them be for awhile. As inwall75 said The less you touch them the less they will stress.

 

Wow, folks! Thanks much for the quick and informative replies.
Inwall, the shroom in question is off by itself in a corner of the tank. The only stress it might have come under lately would have been from some hermits or snails jostling the shell its attached to. I did a 15% water change Tues. if that could have had any negative effect. Now that I've got the shroom settled in a what I hope is a more secure location I have no intention of bothering the little guy.

 

They will do that when they are stressed or bothered. Just leave them alone and see if they will come back. How many days has it been like that?

 

They've appeared stressed for about 48hrs. The expulsion of the filaments just occurred this afternoon after I moved the frag.

 

They don't have eyes and they don't have what we would call a brain. They are pretty much stimulus-response and sometimes they overreact to our touch "thinking" they are under attack and try to attack back. I can't tell you how many shrooms have done this while I was fragging them. Not only do they typically survive, the clones typically survived as well.

 

Makes sense. I was just surprised by such a strong response to a simple move. When I first moved it into the tank it adjusted quickly and calmly. Thanks again for the awesome info. Makes me wish I had had time for the invert. zoo. class back in college.